encode::encoder(3)

NAME

Encode::Encoder -- Object Oriented Encoder

SYNOPSIS

use Encode::Encoder;
# Encode::encode("ISO-8859-1", $data);
Encode::Encoder->new($data)->iso_8859_1; # OOP way
# shortcut
use Encode::Encoder qw(encoder);
encoder($data)->iso_8859_1;
# you can stack them!
encoder($data)->iso_8859_1->base64;  # provided base64()
is defined
# you can use it as a decoder as well
encoder($base64)->bytes('base64')->latin1;
# stringified
print encoder($data)->utf8->latin1;  # prints the string
in latin1
# numified
encoder("bcd}f}g")->utf8     ==     6;      #      true.
bytes::length($data)

ABSTRACT

Encode::Encoder allows you to use Encode in an object-ori ented style. This is not only more intuitive than a func
tional approach, but also handier when you want to stack
encodings. Suppose you want your UTF-8 string converted
to Latin1 then Base64: you can simply say

my $base64 = encoder($utf8)->latin1->base64;

instead of

my $latin1 = encode("latin1", $utf8);
my $base64 = encode_base64($utf8);

or the lazier and more convoluted

my $base64 = encode_base64(encode("latin1", $utf8));

Description

Here is how to use this module.

· There are at least two instance variables stored in a

hash reference, {data} and {encoding}.

· When there is no method, it takes the method name as

the name of the encoding and encodes the instance data
with encoding. If successful, the instance encoding is set accordingly.

· You can retrieve the result via ->data but usually you

don't have to because the stringify operator ("") is
overridden to do exactly that.

Predefined Methods

This module predefines the methods below:

$e = Encode::Encoder->new([$data, $encoding]);

returns an encoder object. Its data is initialized
with $data if present, and its encoding is set to
$encoding if present.

When $encoding is omitted, it defaults to utf8 if
$data is already in utf8 or "" (empty string) other
wise.

encoder()

is an alias of Encode::Encoder->new(). This one is
exported on demand.

$e->data([$data])

When $data is present, sets the instance data to $data
and returns the object itself. Otherwise, the current
instance data is returned.

$e->encoding([$encoding])

When $encoding is present, sets the instance encoding
to $encoding and returns the object itself. Other
wise, the current instance encoding is returned.

$e->bytes([$encoding])

decodes instance data from $encoding, or the instance
encoding if omitted. If the conversion is successful,
the instance encoding will be set to "".

The name bytes was deliberately picked to avoid names
pace tainting -- this module may be used as a base
class so method names that appear in Encode::Encoding
are avoided.

Example: base64 transcoder

This module is designed to work with Encode::Encoding. To
make the Base64 transcoder example above really work, you
could write a module like this:

package Encode::Base64;
use base 'Encode::Encoding';
__PACKAGE__->Define('base64');
use MIME::Base64;
sub encode{

my ($obj, $data) = @_;
return encode_base64($data);

}
sub decode{

my ($obj, $data) = @_;
return decode_base64($data);

}
1;
__END__

And your caller module would be something like this:

use Encode::Encoder;
use Encode::Base64;

# now you can really do the following

encoder($data)->iso_8859_1->base64;
encoder($base64)->bytes('base64')->latin1;

Operator Overloading

This module overloads two operators, stringify ("") and
numify (0+).

Stringify dumps the data inside the object.

Numify returns the number of bytes in the instance data.

They come in handy when you want to print or find the size
of data.

SEE ALSO

Encode, Encode::Encoding

perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 Encode::Encoder(3)